INSTAGRAM

Mobile Game

I’ve been distracted by many things lately. I haven’t been blogging nor watching anime and reading manga at that. In addition to the two otome games I’ve been playing (which by the way have had an endless chain of limited edition events for the past month and a half), I’ve started on the MACHINE KNIGHT roleplaying game by KEMCO and Bandai’s ONE PIECE Treasure Cruise (more on this one later). I mean, I can’t always be writing only about anime and manga, right?

MACHINE KNIGHT is one of KEMCO’s few RPG games that are free to play for the complete story line. I haven’t played any of their other games, although there was a discounted app sale last month. There is a store for in-app purchases in MACHINE KNIGHT that includes items such as bonus dungeons and character status boosters, but they’re not necessary to enjoy the game. You can play through the main story line without making any purchases. There are multiple available endings based on the decisions you make during the game and you can apparently inherit things from your previously completed games, but I haven’t gotten that far yet. I’ve completed one ending scenario and am in the process of farming for materials to forge the best weapons and armor. There are also endgame bosses to defeat, but I should probably start at the beginning.

The game begins like many others–with a scrolling prologue that I believe you can skip. It was quite a lovely piece of exposition:

It’s through discovery that people recover from failure. With new discoveries, they can accept the setback of disgrace.

These are the words of a philosopher of old.

Pursuing glory and honor, people set out on horseback, beneath spreading sailcloth, even on foot, conquering seas and crossing continents. Instinct Drove them on, won them new territories.

And one day, as summer sun sinks at the last beneath the horizon, a vast twilight fell like a shroud over the people.

They woke to the realization that nowhere in the world was there a single corner left to be discovered and claimed.

The fought to reignite the fires of faded glory as a long and icy season seized their hearts. With their own hands they crafted a new and glorious kind of life.

This new glory was born of a new kind of knowing, which they named science. Through the old cycle of failure and discovery, came growth and development undreamt of.

But…as time passed, their bloated minds grew dulled to the intoxication of discovery. And when their satiation had come to tower like a mountain peak, a landslide crashed down with a great roar and darkness fell over their hearts…